A wireless access point (WAP) for wireless communication with associated stations on selected orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communication channels of a wireless local area network (WLAN). The WAP includes: an array of antennas having a number of spatial states, a plurality of components coupled to one another to form receive and transmit chains, and an antenna control circuit. The antenna control circuit couples to the plurality of components and to the array of antennas to determine for each uplink an optimal spatial state of the array of antennas for receiving said uplink; and to change the spatial state of the array of antennas for each uplink to match the optimum determined spatial state therefore.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A wireless access point (WAP) for wireless communication on selected orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communication channels of a wireless local area network (WLAN), the WAP comprising: a plurality of components coupled to one another to form receive chains; and an antenna control circuit coupled to the plurality of components and to an array of antennas, the antenna control circuit to: identify a station from either uplink statistics or from a header portion of an uplink packet; determine an optimal spatial state of the array of antennas for receiving information from the station, and change a spatial state of the array of antennas to match the optimal determined spatial state before reception of a payload portion of the uplink packet.
2. The WAP of claim 1 , the array of antennas having the number of spatial states each corresponding to a distinct radio frequency (RF) footprint.
3. The WAP of claim 1 , the array of antennas having a number of antennas greater than a number of receive chains, the array of antennas having a number of spatial states, each of the number of spatial states corresponding to a distinct subset of the antennas equal in number to the number of receive chains.
4. The WAP of claim 3 , the antenna control circuit to: determine, for each uplink of a plurality of uplinks, an optimal subset of the array of antennas for receiving each uplink of the plurality of uplinks; and switchably couple the optimal subset of the array of antennas to the receive chains for each uplink.
5. The WAP of claim 1 , the array of antennas having each antenna with selectable spatial coverage; and the antenna control circuit to determine an optimal selection of spatial coverage for each antenna in the array of antennas for the uplink and to select said optimal spatial coverage of the array of antennas for reception of the uplink packet.
6. The WAP of claim 1 , further comprising: the antenna control circuit determining which distinct spatial state of the array of antennas optimizes uplink communications from a given one of the associated stations by evaluating a communication channel on each of the antennas during uplinks from the given one of the associated stations and by extrapolating an optimal spatial state of the array of antennas from said evaluation.
7. The WAP of claim 1 , wherein the optimal spatial state of the array of antennas is determined in view of the uplink packet.
8. The WAP of claim 1 , wherein the optimal spatial state of the array of antennas is determined in view of the uplink packet and at least one other uplink packet.
9. The WAP of claim 1 , wherein the optimal spatial state of the array of antennas is determined in view of the station.
10. The WAP of claim 1 , wherein the optimal spatial state of the array of antennas is determined in view of the station and at least one other station.
11. A method to operate a wireless access point (WAP) for wireless communication on selected orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communication channels of a wireless local area network (WLAN) the method comprising: providing a plurality of components coupled to one another to form receive chains; identify an uplink from either uplink statistics or from a header portion of an uplink packet; determining an optimal spatial state of an array of antennas for reception of the uplink; and changing the spatial state of the array of antennas to the optimal spatial state before reception of a payload portion of the uplink packet.
12. The method of claim 11 , the array of antennas having a number of antennas greater than a number of receive chains, the array of antennas having a number of spatial states, each of the number of spatial states corresponding to a distinct subset of the antennas equal in number to the number of receive chains.
13. The method of claim 11 , the array of antennas having each antenna with selectable spatial coverage, the method further comprising selecting an optimal spatial coverage of the array of antennas for reception of the uplink.
14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: changing the spatial state of the array of antennas to the optimal spatial state for receiving the uplink from a station.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the optimal spatial state of the array of antennas is determined in view of the uplink packet.
16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the optimal spatial state of the array of antennas is determined in view of the uplink packet and at least one other uplink packet.
17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the optimal spatial state of the array of antennas is determined in view of one or more stations.
18. A station for wireless communication with a wireless access point (WAP) on selected orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communication channels of a wireless local area network (WLAN), the station comprising: a transmitter to send an uplink packet to the WAP, wherein the WAP is configured to determine an optimal spatial state of an array of antennas for communication with the station, wherein the WAP is configured to cause a change to the array of antennas to match the optimal determined spatial state.
19. The station of claim 18 , wherein the uplink packet includes a header portion, wherein the WAP is to identify the station the header portion of the uplink packet.
20. The station of claim 18 , wherein the array of antennas are changed to match the optimal determined spatial state before the WAP receives a payload portion of the uplink packet.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
November 4, 2019
October 6, 2020
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